Joe Vogel enters his 18th season with the Panthers and his first as an assistant coach following 17 seasons as the program's head coach.
The 2022-23 campaign saw the Panthers finish fifth overall at the Conference USA Championships and sophomore Karissa Kilby posted a 28th-place finish at the NCAA Palm Beach Regional.
The 2017-18 season was a rebuilding time for Vogel and the women's golf program, with all but one Panther being a freshman or sophomore. Freshman standout Valentina Gilly and Katerina Krasova claimed All-Conference USA honors.
Vogel's 2016-17 team carded seven top-five finishes including a win at the FIU hosted Pat Bradley Invitational. Camila Serrano represented the Panthers in the postseason placing in a tied for 114th at the NCAA Championship. Under Vogel's tutelage, Serrano won C-USA Golf Of The Year, giving the Panthers back-to-back C-USA Golf Of The Year awards.
His 2015-16 squad finished the campaign with a pair of top-five finishes. Meghan MacLaren put a bow on her banner career at FIU by winning the C-USA Individual title and the C-USA Golfer Of The Year. MacLaren then went on to her one up her 2015 NCAA Championship effort by finishing 18th in the 2016 NCAA Championship.
During the 2014-15 season, Vogel’s squad had a total of five, top-three finishes as a team, which included a first-place finish at the Amelia Island Collegiate on Feb. 25. In the squad’s final event of the season, the C-USA Championships, FIU earned a second-place finish and Meghan MacLaren won the C-USA Individual title. MacLaren went on to make a memorable NCAA Championships appearance, as she shot a fourth round score of 74, to finish 25th overall in a field of 131 competitors. The junior became just the seventh athlete in program history to finish in the top 25 at an NCAA Championship, and the first since Moira Dunn in 1994.
In FIU’s inaugural season in C-USA during the 2013-14 campaign, the Panthers earned five top-five finishes as a team in tournaments, including a fourth place finish in the squad’s first appearance at the C-USA Championships. Vogel’s team earned a first-place finish at the Amelia Island Collegiate, as the Panthers shot five-under par as a team to earn a top finish in the 14-team field. At FIU’s annual Pat Bradley Invitational, Vogel helped lead Arias as a freshman to the tournament title, as she finished six-under par for the championship. Serrano, who won the Amelia Island Collegiate, was named a second team All-C-USA selection while MacLaren took home third team honors. Serrano was also tabbed the Conference’s Freshman of the Year.
During the 2012-13 season, FIU won four tournaments, including the 2013 Sun Belt Conference Championship, which equaled a single-season record under Vogel. Vogel was also named the 2013 Sun Belt Conference Coach of the Year as his team qualified for the NCAA East Regional. His 2008-09 squad also won four tournaments. In total, Vogel’s FIU teams have won 13 tournaments since 2006-07. A longtime PGA member, Vogel began his tenure as FIU’s sixth all-time women’s golf coach in August 2006 and has continually elevated the Panthers’ program in both conference play and against national intercollegiate competition.
At the 2013 SBC Women’s Golf Championship, FIU dominated the field leading wire to wire and winning by 16 strokes over the second-place finisher. In addition, then-freshman Meghan MacLaren became FIU’s first individual champion finishing the 54 holes at four-under par. FIU wound up with three golfers in the top five, MacLaren, freshman Sophie Godley (4th) and senior Tania Tare (5th), with each being selected to the All-Tournament Team. All five 2012-13 starters were named to the All-Conference team, in addition to Vogel’s Coach of the Year honor.
The SBC title marked the fourth time in 2012-13 that the Panthers swept team and individual titles in a tournament. FIU was victorious in the fall at the Michigan Wolverine Invitational, the 35th Annual FIU Pat Bradley Invitational and at the University of Hawaii’s Rainbow Wahine Invitational.
In 2011-12, the Panthers were regarded as one of the top three programs in the conference and had two of the league’s top players, All-Sun Belt selections Katie Mundy, an NCAA Division I Women’s Golf Championship individual qualifier, and present junior Shelby Coyle, a former SBC Freshman of the Year in 2011.The level of recruits now attracted to play for FIU under Vogel assist with the historically-successful program as it continues competition with Conference USA.
Finding or mentoring young golfers is certainly not new to Vogel, who is also the Founder and President of the South Florida Junior Golf Foundation (SFJGF) in Plantation, Fla. Since 2001, the SFJGF, a non-profit established to actively introduce golf and work with more than 8,500 juniors for over 10 years. In a partnership with Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach County schools, he has introduced golf free of charge to students in 33 local elementary and middle schools. Vogel also teaches groups and individuals at the SFJGF Academy located at Jacaranda Country Club in Plantation, Fla.
Vogel was the recipient of the PGA Southern Chapter’s “2004 Junior Golf Leader” award for his consistent work with junior golfers in the South Florida region. U.S. kids Golf also nominated Vogel for the Top 50 junior golf instructor’s award. In 2002, he was awarded the PGA Foundation’s Growth of the Game Award. Whether as a teaching professional, where he is a long-time PGA member, Vogel has been a highly-successful fixture for golf in South Florida spanning the last four decades. Vogel was also the director of the South Florida Junior Golf Academy at Jacaranda Golf Club for a period of eight years and coached the U.S. Kids World Championship South Florida Team to a second place world finish in 2002. He also served as the Southern Chapter president (1995-97) and on the board for the South Florida Section of the PGA.
He has mentored several winners of major junior golf tournaments like the Doral-Publix in Miami; The Future Masters in Dothan, Ala.; U.S. Kids World Championship at Jekyll Island, Ga.; Pepsi Little People in Quincy, Ill.; The European Tour Championship in Chester, England. Several others have earned college golf scholarships at Wake Forest, Duke, Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama.
He began his coaching career as the head golf professional at Pine Island Ridge Country Club from 1989-96 and then as director of golf at the Will Neel Golf Academy/Hope Worldwide Golf Academy until 2001.Vogel received his bachelor’s degree in corporate management from Florida Atlantic University in 1983, became a Class-A member of the PGA in 1988 and earned his master’s certificate in golf instruction from the Will Neel Academy in 1999.
